#divi’s

OCEAN BLOCK WALK – 31 AUGUST 2016

In the last few weeks the focus for construction has moved back to our bungalow. The goal is for us to move in and reside permanently in the bungalow the first week of October 2016 … saying goodbye to renting Bob’s house.

Check out the video taken earlier this morning. It shows me walking from the road down through the front block to the ocean … https://youtu.be/yaJby1OGpNY

Sadly in the last week Abbie, one of the village bakers, lost his wife. It came as a surprise. She died on Friday night, and was buried on Saturday. A very quick process. Part of Vanuatu custom is for the village to mourn her passing for five (5) days. Lots for us to learn about the local culture. We don’t want to just be here. We want to be part of the community, understanding the culture and the Vanuatu way of doing things. To add to the local community, through employment, and sharing local history and cultural knowledge with our family, friends and guests.

Scott from Mangaliliu in Vanuatu

CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS

360 SITE VIDEO OCEAN BLOCK– 31 July 2016

This short video is of the building site.

I stood on a rock towards the back of the ocean block, and turned in a circle.  It gives you a perspective of the building site. I am positioned about 70 metres from the ocean, 10 metres in from the back, and 10 metres in from the left side.

Lots of landscaping ahead for Darleen and me.

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/FKADIQvUpek

PATH WALK – 31 July 2016

For this short video you start at the ocean, and walk up towards the wine and tapas bar.

Building in Vanuatu at Mangaliliu you are not permitted to build a solid structure within 30 metres of the median high water mark. So the front edge of the wine and tapas bar and our bungalow are on the 30 metre line.

As you can tell … we wanted to be a close to the ocean as possible.

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/1ecCp24VGPg

CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS – 31 July 2016

The next four (4) videos give you a construction update of the four (4) main structures.

Wine & Tapas Bar … https://youtu.be/GOIlbT0hvAk

Bungalow … https://youtu.be/rhS_PpMUmaw

Glamping Hut One … https://youtu.be/UBKa639dXB8

Glamping Hut Two … https://youtu.be/oPzKMyzN36k

Scott building in Vanuatu

QUICK UPDATE

Just wanted to let you in on a few significant things for us today (Friday 19 Aug 2016) …

First, the team putting the roof on Glamping Hut Two asked us to remove a tree.  NO, Darleen said, I don’t want the whole tree removed. Just remove the branch!

Remove tree Glamp 2

Remove tree Glamping Hut 2

We approached are new neighbour Josie (who is great and deserves his own blog on another day), who came to the rescue.

Josie on ladder

Josie on ladder

He climbed the ladder, with the chain saw and cut down the tree in pieces.

The top piece was tied to the tow bar of our Isuzu D-Max, and I separated the top piece of the tree after Josie had carefully cut half way through the branch with the chain saw. We did it without doing any damage to Josie, the car … or Glamping Hut Two!

The second significant event for us today, our other neighbour Alan & Bronwyn have departed for a three (3) week family visit in Australia. With Josie also away tonight, Darleen and I are alone in the bush.

The third is a small milestone … the team working on Divi’s Tapas Bar finished the internal rendering this afternoon. It looks great.

Scott … live from Vanuatu.

 

VIDEO SITE WALK 31 JULY 2106

We headed back to the Gold Coast (Australia) to take delivery of our second container on Sunday 31 July 2016.  The container arrived first thing Monday morning, and we had four (4) days to pack it before it was scheduled to be collected on Friday morning (5 August 2016).

The morning before we headed to the airport, we shot some more short videos. This is the first, enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/jMAErpHw3Yg

Scott from Vanuatu

NEW FRIENDS

I want to introduce you to Leisong who is a lovely Ni-Van (local Vanuatu resident) from Mangaliliu village (closest village 800 metres to Divi’s). Leisong came with the house we are renting from our neighbour Bob. Leisong is our “house lady”. Hate the term, but that is the way her role is described.

Leisong has separated from her husband, who moved on and remarried. Leisong has two children, Bruce and Presley. Bruce is married to Filima, with two beautiful kids. Darleen employed Bruce back in May to assist with our new chain saw and clearing on the block.

Bruce is part of the Thomas Bros family, as is Leisong. This meets an important condition of our land lease: that we offer jobs first to the Thomas Bros family, then Ni-Vans from the village. Only if a role cannot be filled by a Ni-Van from the Thomas Bros family or the Mangaliliu village, can we employ a Ni-Van from outside the area.

Chief Mangaliliu

Chief Mangaliliu

The gentleman in this photo is Chief Mormor from Mangaliliu village. He is 36 and was sworn in as the new chief earlier this year. He has known from a very young age that he was going to be the village Chief at Mangaliliu.

We met with the Chief to discuss our development, and why we employed an outside builder. We wanted to explain we didn’t have building experience like our neighbours Bob and Alan who employed Ni-Vans from the village for their construction. But as soon as the building construction was finished, and the business ready to open, we would be in a position to employ Ni-Vans from the village for many years to come.

Throughout the discussion he was very quiet and measured, but appeared to take in what we saying, and what we are trying to achieve. He came across as on-board with our Divi’s concept.

Love living at Mangaliliu in Vanuatu.

From paradise … Scott

CONTAINER IS CLOSE …

27 July 2016

Great news, the vessel with our container is in Port Vila Harbour this afternoon. As soon as the P&O ship departs (around 5pm), the container ship will dock and our container will be unloaded tonight. We have been told there is a chance the container may delivered on Saturday. That will be a huge relief for Darleen.

Below are links to the last two videos shot on the 13 July 2016:

VIDEO WALK – Driveway 13 July 2016

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/VisDNdAmVvw

VIDEO WALK – Darleen watering 13 July 2016

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/roam3E7kg1g

Scott from Vanuatu

VIDEO WALK 13 JULY 2016

I was excited yesterday to share the video walk of the wine & tapas taken on 13 July 2016. Well … below I have included four (4) short videos that show the rest of the site construction also taken on 13 July 2016.

VIDEO WALK – Bungalow

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/Dy3dSQe6VGg

VIDEO WALK – Glamping Hut One

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/CYgkFhrXrGA

VIDEO WALK – Glamping Hut Two

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/5k0M2QJm2ps

VIDEO WALK – Burn Pile

Enjoy the tour … https://youtu.be/AjaRiFPqScE

Scott from Vanuatu

VIDEO WALK – Wine & Tapas 13 July 2016

This video was taken on the morning of the 13th July 2016.

It was incredibly special on this day to walk through the wine and tapas building. To see the actual size of each room, the position of the windows and the view from Divi’s bar … WOW!

The wine & tapas building started as a concept we casually discussed as a “WHAT IF”. The concept developed into an image in Darleen’s mind, before she transferred that image to a sketch pad. After several months of fine tuning, we took the drawing to a draftsman who developed a set of drawings to scale.

Now we can stand in the centre of that concept!

Hope you enjoy the brief tour … https://youtu.be/qSleoWkRPa0

Scott in Vanuatu